A typical worksite, such as a mining worksite, may include one or more features, such as high walls, valleys, inclined paths, low walls, etc, which develop over time during the mining operation. For example, to mine out/excavate mineral ores, such as coal, earth material overlying the mineral ore (typically known as an overburden region) is removed and is deposited in a dump region. This overburden removal and dumping may result in an incline (having a positive slope) in the dump region. The junction of the incline and the overburden region is typically known as a pivot point.
To move the material from the overburden region to the dump region, various machines such as dozers are used. A typical dozer has a blade that is used to scrape off the earth material in the overburden region and push it in the dump region. In certain scenarios, during the pushing operation, the blade of the dozer may get stuck at the pivot point where the incline begins (due sudden change in the elevation at the pivot point).
To avoid the aforementioned problem, the blade of the dozer is usually lifted before even the machine reaches the pivot point. However, lifting of the blade leads to shedding of the earth material around the pivot point, which may further lead to shifting of the point from where the incline begins. Such shifting of the start point of the incline may again cause the blade to get stuck.
WO2016033634 discloses a method to design a pit in a diamond pattern with a series of blocks that are not in a straight advancing face. The use of the diamond pattern reduces the amount of waste rock being moved into a lower or higher position. Furthermore, the diamond pattern provides the advantage that waste rock needs to be pushed at a comparatively shorter distance.